Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The State of the Garden Address (SotGA) #1

Well, my garden's pretty much done with its spring/summer crops, and I just recently planted some fall/winter ones. So far, I've planted (from seed): mustard, cabbage, collards, turnips, kale, lettuce (Grandpa Admire and Black Seeded Simpson), carrots (Oxheart and Touchon), and broccoli. I even planted nine Packman broccoli plants, in case the seed-started ones don't do well. I still have yet to plant some winter squash and some garlic and perhaps even some shallots.

My Cherokee Purple tomatoes are still producing (although not as well as they were; I think the drought's affected them), as are my (late-planted) San Marzano tomatoes. My Marglobes are still producing a few small tomatoes as well. The Cherokee Purples were a big hit amongst everyone I shared them with, and they are likely the best tomato I've ever eaten (I/we have Craig LeHoullier to thank for that).

I still have two squash plants left, but they don't seem to be producing right now (perhaps anymore). My Fin de Bagnol beans are through, and my Ichiban eggplants are long gone (they both apparently fell victim to the drought, and to a problem with my irrigation system). My jalapeno and tabasco pepper plants are still going strong, as are my okra plants. I'm going to pickle my okra, and turn most of the jalapenos into chipotle peppers (by drying and smoking them); I may try pickling some of them as well.

My corn did fine, but it (Stowell's Evergreen) wasn't the best sweet corn I've ever had. Plus, without using pesticides, the ears got eaten up by worms, and I wasn't able to harvest as many as I'd wished. I may try Country Gentleman or a similar open-pollinated corn next year (I'm not quite desperate enough to go back to a hybrid like Silver Queen quite yet).

The only crop that was destroyed by wildlife (deer) was my sweet potatoes. But, it was my fault as I didn't make the fence high enough. And anyway, perhaps the deer meat will taste sweeter this year!